Ideas for D&D Magic Items Part 10
The Baba Yaga's Mortar and Pestle
I realized that while I have shared the 4 artifacts the campaign members chose from I did not share the original artifact that they traded in; The Baba Yaga’s Mortar and Pestle. A powerful reward after an intense fight against the (at the time) strongest single opponent they had encountered. For those uninitiated, the Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic folklore who is typically depicted as an old, female hermit who lives in the woods and whose head is adorned with long, wispy, and white hair. She is cruel, cunning and a keeper of long forgotten knowledge which she often uses to further her own plans and affect the land in drastic ways. Upon defeating her, the party noticed the mortar and pestle returned to a resting position above an already lit fire. The mortar slowly spun whilst floating with no attachments. One member touched the mortar and it shrunk to fit perfectly into their hands since its previous master was no longer part of this world.
As for the mortar and pestle themselves, they require attunement and were the first artifact I had researched. Because of this I mostly made derivative decisions on the pros and cons the user would experience from becoming attuned to such an item. Here are its properties:
Her Hideous Laughter: Once per turn, as an action, the user may cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter 3 times. Regain all uses after long rest.
Force of Nature: Can cast Nature's Wrath 1 time. Regain this use after a long rest.
Old Knowledge: Gain proficiency in medicine.
Unfamiliar Hands: When attuned to anyone who is not the Baba Yaga nor her kin the user will suffer from disadvantage on saving throws against spells that affect the user.
One Size Fits All: The mortar is a tiny clay bowl. However, the mortar increases in size to accommodate anything you place inside, expanding -if there's enough space- up to Large size, meaning it can hold even a Large creature. Additionally, if the user is inside the mortar they may command it (as a free action) to fly up to 50 feet per 6 seconds.
Magical Pestle: The pestle is a 6 inch long, worn wooden tool. Once during your turn while you are holding the pestle, you can extend it into a quarterstaff or shrink it back into a pestle (no action required). As a quarterstaff, the pestle is a magical weapon that grants +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it. The pestle has 12 charges. When you hit with a melee attack using the pestle you can expend up to 3 charges to deal an extra 1d8 force damage for each charge expended. The pestle regains all expended charges daily at dawn.
Perfect Tools: While holding the mortar and pestle, you can use your action to say the name of any non-magical plant, mineral, or fluid and an amount of the material worth 10gp or less. The mortar instantly fills with the desired amount of that material. Once you use this action you can't do so again until you finish a short or long rest. You can also use the artifact as alchemist's supplies, brewer's supplies, cook's utensils, an herbalism kit, and a poisoner's kit.
Primal Parts: As an action while the pestle and mortar are within 5 feet of you, you can command the pestle to grind. For the next minute, or until you use your action to verbally command it to stop, the pestle moves on its own, grinding the contents of the mortar into a mush or fine powders that's equally useful for cooking or alchemy. At the start of each of your turns, whatever is in the mortar takes 4d10 force damage. If this reduces the target's hit points to 0, the target is reduced to powder, pulp, or paste, as appropriate. Only magic items are unaffected. If you wish, when the pestle stops, you can have the mortar separate its contents, like powdered bone, crushed herbs, pulped organs, into separate piles.
Traverse the night: If you are holding the pestle while you are inside the mortar, you can use your action to verbally command the mortar to travel to a specific place or creature. You need to know the location or creature. Additionally, it must be a specific place or creature, not just the nearest river or red dragon's lair. If the stated destination is within 1,000 miles of you, the mortar lifts into the air and vanishes. You and any creatures in the mortar travel through a dreamlike sky, with reflections of the world passing below. Creatures might see images of you streaking through the sky between your point of origin and the destination. You arrive at the location 1 hour later, or if it is night, 1 minute later.
GM Notes (Only visible to GM)
10. Bones Know Their Home: When you command the mortar to travel, you can instead throw out the dust or paste of something ground by the mortar and name a location on a different plane of existence or to a different world on the Material Plane. If that material came from a creature native to the named plane or world, the mortar travels through an empty night sky to an unoccupied space at the destination, arriving in 1 minute.
As expected, the user may hop into the mortar (just like the Baba Yaga) and fly around in it, as well as use the pestle as a bludgeoning weapon. On top of this, the user could cast the low level spell Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and the high level spell Nature’s Wrath. These traits are best used by a spellcasting character since they would have better knowledge of these spells and (mechanically speaking) have higher spell save DC’s. And the user gains proficiency in medicine similar to the Baba Yaga.
Now for the major benefits and drawbacks. The party immediately noticed that all users that are not the Baba Yaga herself will suffer from disadvantage on saving throws when targeted by any spell. This was ultimately what made that fabled party want to trade in the item from a mechanical point of view; story wise they luckily met an NPC who was interested in the item. However they never utilized its fantastic alchemical uses nor its travel potential. For alchemy, as long as they could supply 10 gold pieces worth of the material, the mortar could grind and reproduce said material into an enormous amount. For making potions and poisons this was a very desirable trait. On the other hand, since the mortar could expand to a large size it could occupy up to 9 medium sized creatures (the average size of player characters is medium). This means they could all fit inside it and traverse the land near instantaneously in the night; which no other magic item nor spell could reproduce without a worldbuilding level of setup. Unfortunately they never discovered the final, hidden property of the mortar and pestle by placing the bones of a creature from a different plane into the mortar and having it grind them up. Since “bones remember their home” the mortar could again “travel in the night” and shift which plane the user(s) are in. I planned on having them discover this via placing the remains of an otherworldly creature into the mortar and grinding them up since one of the religious characters would usually bury the remains out of respect to their enemies.